Detroit Seamount - Mantle of Sediment

Mantle of Sediment

The seamount was thought to be covered in a cap of sediment, which was confirmed in 2005. All but the topmost cones of Detroit Seamount are capped in a thick layer of sediments, which were found to have drifted there from a direction due northwest. The drift that carried the sediments onto the volcano was named the "Meiji Drift," after the oldest volcano in the chain, Meiji Seamount, which was also in that direction. The drift is of Oligocene to Quaternary-era mud, deposited by ocean currents. The tallest parts of the seamount protrude above this "mud cap," which at its deepest is estimated to be 840 m (2,756 ft) thick. They formed 34 million years ago.

A 2005 analysis of the results of the 2001 JOIDES Resolution excursion found the age, composition, structure, and history of growth for the seamount. The evaluation also focused on the strange cones that poked through the sedimentary layers. They were deposited onto the seamount before the Meiji Drift developed. Analysis put the latest date of their formation at 60 million years ago, 6 million years into the seamount's life.